If You Only Knew Me!

I just want to fit in!   I just want to be accepted!  If people would just give me a chance, I know they’d like me! Do any of these words resonate in your heart and mind? Why does mankind seek so desperately to be loved and accepted by others? I had a friend say to me recently, “Approval is overrated”.  I laughed and tried to believe it. I wish I could do away with all thoughts of the acceptance of others and just live life unconcerned about what they think.  I have pondered this question so often even asking God point blank; “Why do I care so much about what others think of me?”  Once again, just as faithful as ever, God’s Word presented a verse to consider.  Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness… So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:2, 27
 Do you think God desires to be known; accepted and loved by us the same way we so desire it from others?  I used to think the desire to be accepted and loved was a sign of insecurity; hence, my desire to rid myself of it.  I’m beginning to think differently! Convinced I am made in God’s image frees me to believe that, when kept in the right perspective, I only desire the same kind of love, recognition and acceptance from others that God desires from me.

Political correctness speaks to the subject of God as our “higher power”.  You have the right to see God as you wish but don’t try to tell me who God is or is not.  Do you ever tell people…” View me as you like; believe whatever others tell you about me, that’s OK?  I think not!”  If people said things about you that weren’t true, you would want to correct the lie and tell them the truth about yourself.  Could this be just one of the attributes of God’s image that He has imprinted on us? Could our desire of wanting to be known, understood and accepted by others come from God so we will know His deep desire to be known, understood and accepted by His creation?  Shouldn’t we offer Him the same consideration that we ourselves desire from others?  If we believe we have that right and privilege don’t you think that the God of the universe has that same privilege and deserves to be known, recognized and acknowledged as almighty GOD?

God has gone to great lengths to allow us to know Him, to walk and talk with Him, and stay in eternal relationship with Him.  First, He used the lives of so many to live His Word and then write it down for all of us to come to know and experience Him!  He says it repeatedly in His Word; I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD… Jeremiah 24:7.  In the New Testament Jesus says it this way; “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” … “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father”.  “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me– just as the Father knows me and I know the Father–and I lay down my life for the sheep.  John 8:19; 14:9; John 10:14-15

The next time you begin to feel unaccepted, unappreciated or unloved take a moment to ask yourself, “What have I done today to hurt God in this way”?  Think about ways you could learn to know Him more through reading His Word and strengthening your relationship with His Son.  You will never feel more significant then when you allow yourself to know God, as He reveals Himself to you, and then love others as He loves you! 

God’s Word tells us that the day will come when: “No longer will a man teach his neighbor or a man his brother, saying, `Know the LORD, ‘because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Jeremiah 31:34. Repeated in Hebrews 8:11. Until God brings forth that day I am here to tell you, “Know the Lord!”  You’ll never know a greater love!